Gli avvoltoi della strada ferrata

Army sergeant John Payne is ordered to clear up the situation in Laramie single-handedly. He finds his childhood buddy Dan Duryea running a saloon and paying off everyone in sight to keep the work moving as slow as possible; the longer it takes, the more of the rail workers' pay he can pocket. Payne gets himself appointed marshal and jails all the baddies.... but their friends on the juries keep setting them free.

It's another of the 'Shaky A' westerns from Universal in this period, directed by the reliable Jesse Hibbs. Like most of the westerns from Universal in this period, it's in Technicolor, has a couple of minor stars, a few key character actors like Barton Maclane and Lee van Cleef and a spectacular finale of a fight in a train that's about to crash into a passenger train. The result is good, if standard fun.

It's produced by Ted Richmond. He began producing B movies for Columbia in 1940. When Cohn shut down his series, he switched to Universal, where he worked on all sorts of programmers. He produced 56 movies by 1957, and then slowed down. Over the next 22 years, he produced 10 movies, including PAPILLON. He died in 2013 at the age of 103.

A very common and rather clichéd plots for old westerns is the notion of someone trying to stop the railroad. While there really wasn't a historical basis, too many films were about a supposed overt or covert effort to stop progress. In most all of them, however, the reason why the baddies are doing this is pretty obvious...but in this one I really couldn't see why Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is doing this...and it's a major weakness of the film.

The man sent to help get the railroad built is an Army Sergeant, Jeff Harder (John Payne) and through most of the film, he makes very little progress thanks to Shanessy and a rather stupid town that tolerates Shanessy's antics. It all leads up to a murder conviction, a jail escape and train chase. None of it's bad...none of it's outstanding in any way. A standard and rather clichéd film.

By the way, late in the film a lady is shot from about 8-10 feet away with what is probably a .45 Colt cartridge. Amazingly, she survived...a miracle and a half!

John Payne stars in this 1954 sagebrush saga, which also features several western favorites as co-stars. The railroad sends a representative to get to the bottom of a gang's attempts to disrupt the rail-lines.

The film is well-paced and Payne is a good choice to play the lead role. Dan Duryea steals many of the scenes he appears in and the great Lee Van Cleef was fine in his all too brief supporting role.

Payne appeared in a number of Westerns in the '40's and '50's, but was never able to reach the same success as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Glenn Ford had in the genre. This film was a good example of his work and should be enjoyed by die-hard Western movie fans........

Seems to be a re-hash of Kansas Pacific with a lot of the same actors!

A railroad sends an agent (John Payne) to Laramie to try to find out who is behind the efforts to stop the railroad from building its line into the area.

An enjoyable railroad western that is brisk and keeps your attention throughout. There's a nice buddy angle between John Payne and Dan Duryea, but when Duryea realises Payne isn't going to turn a blind eye to his crooked ways, he chooses to get rid of him the hard way. There's fistfights, attempted riots and Lee Van Cleef snarling with his trigger-happy fingers. There's also an interesting women's jury sequence. But what stands out for me is the wonderful looking trains; the finale with a shootout and a fistfight on top of the train is an exciting one. Mari Blanchard sizzles as Payne's love interest.

A satisfying railroad western that makes you feel good. Nice title song sung by Rex Allen.